Hans Cramer

Hans Cramer (13 July 1896-28 October 1968) was a General der Panzertruppe of the German Wehrmacht and commander of the Afrika Korps from February to 12 May 1943.

Biography
Hans Cramer was born on 13 July 1896 in Minden, German Empire, and he joined the Imperial German Army in 1911. After World War I, he remained in the Reichswehr, and he became a cavalry school instructor in 1934. Cramer led a recon detachment of the Wehrmacht during the 1939 invasion of Poland, and he took command of the 8th Panzer Regiment during the Western Desert Campaign in 1941. Cramer was wounded during Operation Battleaxe, and he held some staff posts in the OKH from 1942 to 1943. In February 1943, he was sent to take command of the Afrika Korps in North Africa, and he was promoted to General der Panzertruppe on 1 May 1943. On 12 May, he was captured by the British Army after the surrender at Cape Bon, and he was held at the Trent Park generals' POW camp in England. In May 1944, he was released to Germany after suffering from asthma, and he witnessed Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's forces preparing for the Operation Overlord invasion of France; he was instead told that he was in Kent, making him believe that General George S. Patton was preparing an invasion of the Pas de Calais. He was treated with suspicion after the Operation Valkyrie bomb plot against Adolf Hitler failed on 20 July 1944, and he was imprisoned at a Gestapo jail and the Ravensbruck concentration camp. In September 1944, he was dismissed from the Wehrmacht, and he remained under house arrest until 8 May 1945. From May 1945 to February 1946, he led captured German troops in Holstein, northern Germany, and he wrote books on his role in the war. He died in Porta Westfalica, West Germany in 1968 at the age of 72.